I'm on a business trip to Washington (the state, not the capital), flew in today via Seattle. At first I was surprised that flying to Seattle didn't take much longer than flying to Atlanta, but then I realized that what you see on a typical world map is only the highly distorted Mercator projection. Earth being a globe, the shortest connection between two points is a great circle, not a straight line on a flat map. For the same reason California is much further away from Europe than Seattle is, although on a flat map the distance is the same. Take a globe and a piece of string to see for yourself if you don't believe me.

Anyway, as soon as I arrived I went on a shopping spree for books, DVDs, and clothing. Due to the dollar having fallen so much, the purchasing power of my Euros converted into dollars goes up a lot. It's like getting a 30%+ reduction on everything. The downside was me falling for the guy at Best Buy who said that the CSI season 7 DVD had subtitles, which turned out to be not true. Fortunately most people in that series speak relatively clearly with not much of an accent, so I'll survive. The rest of my stay is work-related and will be less fun than shopping.

I've never been so far west. And the countryside still looks like from a Wild West movie in many places, with praerie where it hasn't been built over, and mountain ranges at the horizon. Very pretty, and I'm lucky with the weather, so quite an enjoyable experience. I'll try to keep blogging via WiFi, but if there is a day without posts you know why. I'll be back Sunday.
- posted by Tobold Stoutfoot @ 4:37 AM Permanent Link
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Ah, the great old pacific northwest. This entire year has been nothing but crazy, crazy weather. I live down a state in Oregon, and while I love it, there are sometimes where I just have to scowl at the sky for being far too obtuse.

I'm an Aussie who's been living in Los Angeles since '98, and not too long ago I watched "The Hard Word" with Guy Pearce, and I had the odd bit of trouble with their accents.

Tobold, your english is pretty good, but every now and then I catch one or two things that remind me it's not your first language, so look at this (CSI:7) as an opportunity to improve your already considerable linguistic skills.

That's quite a romantic view of the countryside. I live down in Arizona, and I always look at the undeveloped stretches of desert as barren. To be honest, it had never occurred to me to be kind of amazed at how much undeveloped land we have in areas of this country.

Welcome to the Pacific Northwest. I was born and raised in the state and work/live in the Seattle metro area. I can’t say that I have ever heard this side of the state compared to a Wild West movie, though. You need to head over to the east side of the state where they have cattle ranges and guys in cowboy hats (but mostly desert, wheat fields and orchards). I’ve been to quite a few places in the US and I would say that the most comparable city to Seattle is likely Chicago. The weather is a bit more severe in Chicago, but overall the two cities have a similar vibe.

I second going to see a ballgame, if only because the team won't be in Seattle for long.

Wrong sport (for the season) and don’t get me started about the Sonics… The court case actually starts on Monday and there is a good chance they’ll still be here for one more year.

BUT – I agree about seeing a baseball ballgame. Safeco Field is widely considered one of the most fan friendly and great places to watch baseball in the US. It’s not a historic stadium (nor is the team) but the Mariners do a great job at making it a really fun environment. In fact, the more hardcore baseball fans make the complaint that it’s too much like Disneyland. They are playing the Washington Nationals on Friday/Saturday at 7:10P. You can buy tickets here.

In regards to the dollar vs. euro value, "yay for you! pray for US" :) The economy sure has been doing the watoosie . I think things will get better eventually but its gonna be a rough ride and we better be prepared. (specially with food and fuel prices doing what they are) Weak US dollars hurt the european tourism industry and other industries cuz it lowers our tourism even tho it does help european tourists and consumers have a good time. Tobold I'm sure already knows this stuff back to front. I was just putting it in here for those who don't know. I like your California versus Seattle comment btw since Cali is where I live :P

We Pacific Northwesters really value the wide open spaces you mentioned. Having grown up here (in Oregon), I don't think I could ever live in a place where the coast, desert, mountains, or prairies weren't accessible in a day's drive or less.

If you get a chance, see about visiting the Pike Place Market - fun place!

My wife bought me a multi-region player so I could watch all my Aussie DVDs like Mr. Bean's Holiday (had it on DVD before it was in the theatres here), Malcolm, Lano & Woodley, and Guesthouse Paradiso. Ok, I know that last one is British, but it's the Aussie release ;)

With my multi-regional capable DVD player I'm watching PAL Region 4 DVDs in the U.S. on an NTSC TV.

I'm not IN Seattle, I just passed through there and went to the eastern part of the country, past the Cascade Range in the Columbia Bassin. So no ballgame, Space Needle, or other Seattle attractions.

I did reprogram my DVD player to be multiregion, so I can watch the region 1 NTSC DVDs from here without problem.

Whether the weak US dollar is bad for the US economy is a point of big discussion. Americans pay more for imported goods, like petrol. But the weak dollar also boosts exports. And America is over its head in dollar denominated debt, so now it can pay back that debt with money which is worth less.